We love having our grandkids spend time with us, and last week, Owen (11) and Ella (9) spent the week with us. Prior to that week they had spent a week at Lake Tahoe with their family, and prior to that had spent a week in Vacation Bible School, so they came to us a bit tired.

We let them relax the first 2 days – that involved sleeping in as late as they wanted, which for them was about 6 am. But the “Grandma factor” was that they could have “screen time” from the time they woke up (as long as it was after 6 am) until they wanted to actually get out of bed – and that was usually around 7, when they were hungry.   We also let them have more screen time during the day, as a way of relaxing. We had recorded the movie “Homeward Bound” for Ella, and she watched that one afternoon.

We thought by Day 3 they should be recovered enough from their previous weeks’ activities to start “playing” with us now , and so I started with Owen:

• Me: Hey, Want to play a game this morning?
• Owen: (jumping up from the computer) Yeah, Let’s play Pokeman Battle Academy!

Well, I was thinking of having him look through our board games and choosing something, but, yeah, sure… Pokeman Battle Academy is fine… I guess I can learn it… until I saw the board… and then saw the tiny writing on the cards themselves. And Pokeman? Inwardly I groaned; outwardly enthusiastic. Thank you, Milton Bradley for doing a superb job with the game instructions, including a “training manual” with the rules of play, even walking players through, step-by-step, the first 4 moves of the game. Still, I just didn’t “get it” and went through the whole first game with Owen pretty much telling me every move to make. I was glad when the game was over, really, but then he said, “Okay, now let’s play a REAL game!”

• Me: “WHAT? I thought we just played a real game.”
• Owen: No – that was just a Training Game!
• Me: Ohhhhhh……

After Owen … what was the word he used….annihilated me at 2 games, I sought out Ella for activities more suited to my strengths.

We went into my craft room, where Ella immediately started opening drawers where I store things like string, wire, clay, buttons, and miscellaneous crafts. Then she set to work making a dinasour. I love that she saw some small grapevine wreath hearts and immediately said, “I have my dinasour wings!” She has such a great imagination.

Over the next few days, we kept ourselves busy with non-screen activities.

I taught Ella how to play Jacks, although it was a bit tricky. Everytime we said the word “Jacks,” my dog “Jax” would come running into the room, skidding into the “jacks” on the floor, scattering them everywhere – so we had to start referring to “jacks” as “j.”  Then I showed her how to play Pick Up Stix. She liked that more than Jacks. I think it was the fact that sticks went flying in the air as she flipped them. Then Ella taught ME how to play Marbles. She learned that on a school field trip. She expained how her class had gone to a place where they churned milk to make butter, beat wheat to make flour, and then made biscuits to eat. They also learned to play Marbles, because that’s what the kids did in “the olden days” when they didn’t have “any toys!!, no ipads, or anything at all to play with!!!” I

I challenged Owen to a tether ball match, and told him I “used to be” pretty good at it. He said to remember that the “key word in that sentence was “used to be,” and, of course I took that as a challenge. But you can see from my posture that even though he’s only 11, I was a bit nervous about the strength behind his hits, and yeah… he annihilated me again… 4 times in tether ball… and after the 2nd game he switched to his non-dominant hand… BUT I do have to say that in the middle of the 3rd game he switched to his dominant right hand – guess I had him worried he might actually lose that one. Ha!

We also made bowls out of vinyl record albums and concrete stepping stones.

When visiting time was over, we hopped in the car, and this time I got to drive them home. It’s about a 2.5 to 3-hour trip. And the thing is—this has never changed—those quiet stretches in the car are when kids really open up. It’s when they slow down enough to share what’s on their minds. And wow, I heard a lot about… well, a lot!https://youtu.be/rWvuFnu0I-Y

But one of the sweetest things occured when Owen and Ella started singing together. Their young voices, raised in harmony – the happiness that radiated from their faces – the love they showed for each other….

Such a catchy tune!

“This is the song that never ends
It goes on and on my friends
Some people started singing it
Not knowing what it was
They’ll keep singing it
Just Because”  (repeat)

Wait! What? Did Owen just ask “Are you annoyed yet?” So this singing was a ploy to annoy me????

I guess there are other things that don’t change either.